We Found Love in a Coffeeshop (AKA Natasha Ships Stony)
by Middle-Earthling
Summary: Steve works the graveyard shift in a small 24 hour cafe to put himself through art school, and Tony is the guy who comes in every night and orders extravagant amounts of coffee, and may or may not be Steve's secret crush.


Steve worked the graveyard shift at a small 24 hour coffee shop called "Fury's". It was exhausting, working from 11pm to 3am every night, then getting up at 8am to go to his morning classes, but it payed pretty well for a simple barista job, and he needed the money, because art school was expensive.

It was also worth it for the customers. Though they were few and far between, the couple of people who came in regularly during his shift were very intersting.

First there was Natasha, a girl with flaming red hair and a vaguely Russian accent who came in three times a week at 12pm sharp, and always asked for the strongest, blackest coffee he could give her. She only ever stayed for as long as it took her to finish her drink, and her people skills were rather lacking, but her conversations were interesting, if a little bit intimidating.

There was Bruce, a rather timid man with curly brown hair and glasses. He only came in sometimes, usually about once a week, but when he did it was always at 1:30am and he always mumbled scientific sounding things under his breath, and somehow always seemed surprised that Steve remembered who he was, despite the fact that the shop was empty whenever he came in and he'd been a costumer the entire time Steve had worked there.

Occasionally a guy called Clint would come in, he only showed up around once a month, but when he did he would stay for Steve's entire shift and order coffee after coffee (after the sixth cup, Steve switched him to decaf, worried that Clint would kill himself with a caffiene overdose or something). He was also rather interesting to talk to, he told all kinds of crazy stories about all night stake outs and catching criminals (Steve assumed he was some kind of police officer, although he only looked about twenty one, so he might have been making the stories up).

And then, there was Tony. Tony was Steve's most regular costumer. He came in about twice a night, every night. If he didn't come in, sometimes Steve worried that he had died or something, he came in that often. He came in every night, and he stayed for over an hour most nights, and he, like Clint, would order as much coffee as he could (Steve never switched him to decaf though, because usually Tony came in looking like he would fall over from sheer tiredness). Tony was Steve's favourite customer. Not that he would ever willingly admit it, but he may or may not have had a tiny bit of a crush on Tony. You couldn't really blame him, though. Tony was a very attractive human being. He was probably about twenty one or two (Steve had only asked one time, but Tony's answer had been "97 million!" followed by a lot of laughter, so Steve hadn't tried again), but he had a baby face that made him seem a lot younger, and huge brown eyes that looked so innocent (despite his personality).

It wasn't just that he was attractive that made Steve like him (although that did play rather a large part). He was also fascinating to no end. Tony was apparantly some kind of science major or something, because on four different occasions he had come in wearing a lab coat, and then three other times he came in looking like something had just blown up in his face. Also, sometimes he sort of dozed off in his coffee and started mumbling something about computer code and robots. Well, either that or he was completely insane. That was also a possibility, considering how prone he was to bursting out laughing for no reason, and babbling about something Steve didn't understand before stopping and just staring at Steve for a good five minutes.

Whenever Tony came in, Steve always felt weirdly pleased. Sort of like... Tony had come there, just to see Steve. Which of course, was ridiculous, because clearly Tony was only coming in to fulfill his coffee needs, considering how he usually resembled an attractive zombie more than a person.

So Steve quietly stewed in his little crush, happy to make small talk and stare at Tony.

That is, until the one night that Tony and Natashsa came in on the same day, at the same time. Seemingly together, actually. Which Steve had not been expecting considering that he had known both of them for a while and had had no idea that they knew each other.

Tony looked half asleep, with his hair pointing in every direction and his clothes slightly singed, as usual and Natasha looked just as deadly as normal.

They came up to the counter seperately and ordered their usual drinks, Tony staying for a few minutes to say hi to Steve and nothing seemed too out of place, until they sat down at the same table and Natasha looked at Steve, then whispered something in Tony's ear.

Tony blushed, and then shook his head, focusing his slightly glazed glare at her.

Steve was rather confused, as Tony talked about anything and everything non stop, but had somehow never mentioned that he was apparantly friends with one of Steve's few regular customers.

He brought them their drinks, and Tony smiled at him (no, Steve's heart totally did not skip a beat at the adorable way Tony smiled) and Tony said "Steve, this is my friend Natasha, Tasha, this is Steve."

"Yeah, I know her, she comes in here all the time," Steve pointed out.

Tony's eyes widened a little, like this was news to him and Natasha just nodded.

At this, Steve went back to stand behind the counter and clean the espresso machine. He was definitely not trying to eavesdrop on them, it totally wasn't his fault it was a small room and he could hear most of their conversation.

"You come here? All the time? And you never told me?" Tony was saying, in a voice that was weird combination of a whisper and an indignant shriek.

"Well, how could I resist when you told me it was the best coffee you've ever had, and that the eye candy was delicious, too?" Natasha's voice made it quite clear that she was smirking smugly.

Tony made a strangled sounding noise.

"You were not supposed to come here! Especially not for the eye candy! That eye candy is my eye candy!" Tony's voice was now going remarkably high and squeaky for a man.

"Well, if my best friend has any intention of dating aforementioned eye candy, of course I had to come check him out," was Natasha's retort.

"I... wait what? Who said anything about dating? Also, aw, I knew you cared about me!"

At this last statement there was the unmistakeable sound of a hand hitting flesh, followed by an indignant and slightly pained squeak.

"Don't hit me, it hurts you freakishly strong woman! And if you just came here to check him out for me, why do you apparantly come here all the time?" Tony said, his voice mostly back to it's normal tone now.

"The coffee was actually good, and strong, and it's like one of the only places that's open late," replied Natasha, reasonably.

"You still could have told me about it..." Tony grumbled.

Their conversation trailed off, followed by the sound of a lot of slurping (Tony liked to get through his coffee fast, so he could get more in as short a space of time as possible).

Steve couldn't believe his ears. If their conversation had been about what he thought it had been about, it meant that Tony liked Steve! Well, either that or he had a thing for the coffee machine, which, while possible (anything was possible with Tony) seemed kind of unlikely.

But then Tony had said he didn't say anything about dating... Which, maybe he had meant something else and didn't like Steve at all?

Steve was very confused, but it wasn't like he could go over there and ask them.

Just as he was deciding he'd misunderstood what they were talking about, the sound of their voices reached him.

"I'm getting more coffee..." that was Tony.

"Good, and while you're up there, ask him out," said Natasha.

"What? No! I can't do that," responded Tony.

"Why not? You don't see to have trouble asking anyone else out."

"That's because they're not literally perfect human beings who are way too good for me and are probably completely straight!"

"Oh trust me, there is no way he isn't at least bisexual, didn't you see the way he was looking at you when we got here?"

"He wasn't looking at me in any way! He was probably looking at you, if there was any looking involved."

"Oh my God, for a genius you are a fucking idiot. He likes you, you like him. Go ask him out, or I'll lock you out of the dorm tonight. And tomorrow night, and the night after that."

"I'm not asking him out."

"Okay, have fun sleeping in the hallway again."

"You are a horrible person, Tasha, you know that?"

"Oh yes, that I know, but this isn't me being horrible, this is me being helpful. Now, shoo and go ride off into the sunset with pretty boy over there," said Natasha.

There was a soft 'ugh' sort of noise from Tony, followed by the sound of chair legs scraping against the floor.

Steve was shocked, and confused. He had not been expecting any of that, at all. He still wasn't convinced they'd been talking about him, but there was no one else here, so they must've been. He hoped they had been. He really wanted Tony to ask him out, but by the sounds of it Tony didn't want to, or was scared to. Maybe Steve should ask him out? But then he would know that Steve had been listening to their conversation and would probably hate him and say no.

Just as he was on the verge of having a minor freak out, Tony appeared in front of him, holding out his empty mug and giving Steve his big pleading puppy dog eyes. Steve couldn't help but laugh a little bit.

"You're coffee habit isn't healthy, you know," Steve teased.

"You're face isn't healthy," said Tony, in what seemed to be a flirty tone, before realizing that what he had said wasn't exactly a compliment.

"That's... not what I meant. At all. Sorry. I need more coffee, my brain is not working. Although I guess 36 hours in the workshop'll do that to you..." he mumbled, apologetically.

Steve didn't say anything for a second as he finished making the coffee and handed it to Tony.

"There you go," Steve said, with a smile.

Tony smiled back and turned to walk away, but Steve stopped him, suddenly making up his mind that he should ask Tony out, even if it meant admitting he'd been listening in on them. He just couldn't resist Tony's adorable face.

"Wait, I need to ask you something," Steve said.

Tony turned back and looked at him, one eyebrow raised slightly.

"Willyougooutwithme?" Steve rushed out.

"Um, repeat that again?"

"I said, will you go out with me?" he repeated, slowly this time.

Tony didn't say anything for a second, eyes wide and mouth slightly open.

"Like... like, on a date?" he asked, voice a little stunned.

"Yes," Steve said, hoping Tony said yes too.

"Yes!" Tony said rather enthusiastically.

Steve grinned so wide he thought his smile might eat the rest of his face, and then walked out from behind the counter to stand in front of Tony.

"You'll go out with me?" Steve asked again, feeling giddy.

"Hell yeah! I can't believe you want to go out with me, but hell yes I want to go out with you," Tony said, as if stating the obvious.

Steve smiled again, and so did Tony.

"Would it be weird to say I've dreamt about this?" Tony said.

"A little," Steve replied.

"Oh. Well then, I totally haven't dreamt about this," was Tony's response.

"It's okay though, I may have dreamt about it just a little bit too," said Steve.

"You are literally perfect," said Tony dreamily, before he realized he'd said that out loud and blushed, looking embarrassed.

"And you are literally the most adorable person I have ever met," Steve laughed.

That just made Tony blush harder.

They just sort of smiled at each other for a few seconds before a voice interrupted.

"Just kiss already, dumb asses!" yelled Natasha.

Now it was Steve's turn to blush, but Tony seemed to take her words to heart, standing on his toes and putting his hands on Steve's shoulders, before leaning up to press his lip's to Steve's.

As it was just their first kiss and they hadn't even been on a date yet, Steve didn't want to take it too far, but he couldn't resist placing his hands on Tony's hips and kissing back, just a little.

They broke apart after a few seconds, grinning like idiots. Behind them, Natasha wolf-whistled, making Steve blush again.

Tony turned to her, glaring. "Shut up Tash, and let me have my moment!"

"I didn't say anything," she said innocently.

Tony glowered at her for another few seconds before turning back to Steve.

"Give me your number," he said.

Steve obliged, finding a piece of paper and a pen from the counter.

"I don't want to be one of those people that says 'I'll call you' as a date arrangement, so tell me what you want to do right now, okay?" said Tony.

"Okay. Um... Will you go out for dinner with me at that Italian place that's on the street behind here, on Friday at... 7pm?" Steve said, hesitently, hoping that sounded romantic enough.

"That sounds perfect, and I already said I'd go out with you," replied Tony, grinning.

Steve smiled, and leaned down to quickly peck Tony's lips again. (There was a quiet 'aw' from Natasha in the background).

Tony attempted to take the short kiss further, but Steve pulled back and winked at him.

"Not until after the first date," he said.

Tony pretended to pout, but gave up after a minute and grinned again.

"Okay love birds, sweet as this, we have to go now, as I have things to do, and I would leave on my own, but I'm pretty sure Tony won't go unless I make him," interrupted Natasha, coming up to stand next to them.n

"Go away Tasha, can't you see I'm in the middle of something here?" said Tony.

"No more until at least after the first date," Steve reminded him.

"God, stop being so moral and perfect," Tony whined.

Natasha just stared at him.

"Fine," he said, dragging out the 'i'.

"Goodbye, Tony," said Steve.

"See ya later, soldier," Tony replied, winking over his shoulder as Natasha dragged him to the doors.

Just before they left Steve could hear their conversation again.

"Oh my God, oh my God, Tash did you see that? He asked me out! And he kissed me! I just kissed Steve!" Tony was saying excitedly.

"Good for you," said Natasha in a bored voice, clearly resigned to hours of him babbling excitedly about it, although there was a tone to her voice betraying the fact that she was actually happy.

Steve just smiled and shook his head.


End file.
